Update: I was unfortunately not aware of Shamus Young's severe criticism of Fallout 3 available here to link in the original piece and I regret that. It dovetails rather nicely with what I've written and it's much better executed than my piece. I strongly recommend anyone...

Even the fat lady won't want to stop.

In the Far East, people are nuts about karaoke. After a hard day at the office,
the working stiff takes his band of associates over to the K-Club, where they
all let loose their worries over soulful ballads."In these private rooms filled
with smoke and drink, they unwind, and for a brief moment, become singing superstars.

Karaoke hasn't quite caught on in the same way in the States, but it might
just get the jumpstart it deserves from Konami's new singing game for everyone,
Karaoke Revolution.

Konami
has made a name for itself by putting the "active' into "interactive entertainment'
with the Dance Dance Revolution craze.
But where that game stresses insane dance step memorization, Karaoke
Revolution puts your money where your mouth is.

Like any karaoke machine, the game offers up a list of songs. Pick your poison
and sing away. It effectively measures the pitch of your voice against the correct
pitch, and scores points accordingly." The more consistent your voice is with
the actual tone, the higher the score."In turn, the higher difficulty settings
require more points to get the bonuses, thus you are pushed to maintain better
accuracy.

Regardless of the octave in which you sing, the game automatically searches
for the proper tonality, so guys can still sing the girlie songs at their normal
baritones."The voice analysis is pretty darn accurate, but'the game doesn't
listen much to what you are saying."You can just as easily sing a Weird
Al remix of any one of these songs, and as long as you keep the pitch, you
still get your points.

For a speedy song like the unlockable Bare Naked Ladies' One Week,
you can just "la, la, la" your way through provided you keep your tone in check.
It's a little annoying, but I imagine it would have been really hard
to program the game to critique pronunciation.

Karaoke Revolution provides a good range of material, though
I would have liked to see more of the oldies and disco favorites." Requisite
karaoke songs like YMCA aren't in here, but the song list does include
"80s classic Broken Wings alongside recent hits like fake-pop-punk
Avril's Are You Happy Now and the hammy Wind Beneath My Wings."
The full list is available here.

The graphics are actually pretty good. You select a singing avatar who goes through the on-screen motions of singing."The motion capture effectively pulls off the look of a performer."Little lighting effects in the background and crowds that build steadily as your character gains in popularity are an excellent visual match. The in-game animations do a good job of matching the tone of the song, particularly the playful pop antics of the female singers.

If
you're not interested in being judged on your performance, Karaoke Revolution
also includes a Free Singing mode." That way you can sing without getting scored,
which is especially useful to the untalented or the wailers.

So it's a decent karaoke machine, but how is it as a game? Well, I guess that
depends on how well you sing. Someone with good vocal skills can easily hum
through this game in one afternoon."Yet most of us aren't that talented; much
to my chagrin, I realized that I'm not the diva I thought I was."But you can
actually improve your skills by singing alone, though that's not where this
game shines brightest.

As you might have guessed, the multiplayer is where it's at, and it's just
tailor made for a party because it courts casual gamers in a non-threatening
way." Everyone can open their mouth and sing a little, though usually their
inhibitions have been to be loosened up a bit with some drinks. Up to eight
players can compete against one another in the multiplayer mode. The mic is
passed around and scores are kept for each of the competitors." There is only
support for one mic, though, so no duets.

Speaking of which, the game supports and requires any USB headset, including
the SOCOM one or any third party set such as one made by Logitech.
If you don't have one, you can purchase the game with the headset as a $60 package;
otherwise, the stand-alone game is $30.

In a very smart move, Karaoke Revolution has the ability
to accept planned add-on discs." How much these discs will cost is not yet known,
but likely small packs of songs should pop up for a modest price."

Clearly, Karaoke Revolution isn't for everyone."Gamers intent
on a traditional skill-based challenge might be put off by this more broad-minded
approach." But for the many casual gamers wanting to subvert their non-gamer
friends and significant others, Karaoke Revolution is among
the best, edging out the Eye Toy and even the traditional
Dance Dance Revolution. It's just about the best party game
around,"decisively hitting the right note in a new genre of games for everyone.